During the All Star break, a little baseball story from the past….
Long ago, during Mark McGwire’s feverish home run chase, The NYT Sunday Magazine commissioned me to do a cover story about McGwire and his supernatural ability to hit a baseball for a very long time. He’s closing in on Roger Maris’ record for most players in a single season, and he’s got the world’s attention.
Despite the adoring eyes of the sports media world riveted, and desperate reporters clamoring, McGwire issued a thorough notice to the media. “I’m not talking.” And he meant it. He talks to no one, citing the concentration it takes to consistently hit the ball over the wall. I remember shakingly standing in the dark tube of the passage that led from the locker room to the court as McGwire drove off. Next to me is Walter Iooss, a truly legendary sports photographer. As he passed him, Walter quickly said, “Mark, 30 seconds!” His pleas fell on deaf ears and big shoulders. I thought, well, if the big guy isn’t posing for Walter, he’s not posing for little me, that must be ding dang.
I took out a long glass and got to work.
In many ways, it’s like wildlife photography. Use a big lens and keep your mouth shut. I pick up the pieces.
I didn’t get a portrait session, so I pursued it as a mosaic, putting the pieces together, and hoping it would all come together eventually into the kind of viewable image that New York Times intellectuals would deem worthy. Sunday Magazine photo crew.
Because after all, they paid me a lot of money. Here’s a copy of my invoice below. I was really happy to get the covers and space payments they deserve, because the magazine is notoriously cheap. I think the daily rate at the time was maybe $350 per day? They use the “Hey, we’re part of the newspaper, so we don’t pay magazine rates!” avoidance! Not that the magazine fared much better, pulling in at the time about $500 a day.
A simpler invoice for a simpler time, 1998.
I am really excited about paying for space. (Traditional daily rate against space. If you work one day and get cover and three double trucks, you get paid yard rate. If they run nothing, you get daily rate.) So, as per the above, I’ll just get about big no cover printing and some nice pictures play into the story.
Like clockwork, McGwire did this stretch before every hit, and I kept rushing from the photo pen to the aisle behind the plate to pick up the frame, to the dismay of the hot dog vendor and “Beer here!” Friends. Photogs planted in stairs are definitely a hindrance to trade, but then again, haven’t we always been? I also really tried to get the ball team to hold off on putting up the retractable roof on Chase Field, citing lighting conditions. I’m shooting a goddamn cover story! I need good light!
Like McGwire, they don’t speak.
I went from B&W to color transparencies to neg colors as the roof closed and darkness, along with AC, ensued. The magazine eventually ran the entire story in B&W. (Before going to the field, I had told the editors about shooting B&W and establishing a historical sequence from Maris’ season, and they gave their blessing.)
And in the end, all the fuss went down the drain as the story about McGwire’s steroid use finally came to light. The “perfect home run machine” as described on the cover of Sunday Magazine is driven by more than exercise and a good diet.
But we didn’t know that, at the time, in that game. The sound of McGwire’s bat hitting the ball, the cyclone of his swing, gripped the stadium as he was at the plate. For me, I was nervous the whole game. Gotta shoot every swing, don’t miss, and the ball screams to the top deck. I rushed, feverishly changing reels and film types. Nearing the end of the roll? OK, turn it off quickly because if he goes yards to his next down, you want the frame on the camera to light up as he goes around the base, and get a high five. I think I work four cameras. Three motor-driven Nikons and a 43mm wide-angle Mamiya 7. (Not super practical as 120 reels only has 12 frames, but very nice to look at.)
I tried everything. After all, it’s a daily rate against space.
more tk…
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